WaMu Realigns; Mortgage Chief Out

Washington Mutual, Seattle, the largest servicer of home mortgages in the United States, said late Tuesday that it has realigned its business units, and announced the retirement of its mortgage chief, Craig Davis. The sudden retirement of the 52-year-old Mr. Davis, effective immediately, comes three weeks after the company disclosed that it would book a loss in the third quarter in regard to mortgage loan sales because of problems in tracking loan commitments. Asked whether Mr. Davis' retirement is related to the anticipated loss on loan sales, a WaMu spokesman said the company's realignment "makes it less likely that operational difficulties will occur in the future." The spokesman added, "Craig chose to retire." Mr. Davis will remain as an adviser to WaMu until year-end. WaMu said it will realign its businesses around two groups: retail customers and commercial clients. Deanna Oppenheimer, president of WaMu's banking and financial services group, will be in charge of residential lending. In trading at midday Wednesday, WaMu's shares were down 1.27% to $38.87. (For more details, see the Oct. 6 issue of National Mortgage News.)